Tag: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Here’s a post I did in early 2015 for my MLP Season 4 retrospective that never got published because why not. I’ve avoided editing because I wanted to keep it authentic to my old writing so it might be iffy, but I still think it’s good stuff. Enjoy!

Pinkie Apple Pie is the second episode in Season 4 to do something completely and utterly world-shaking, except unlike Daring Don’t it understands the weight of its own development and draws the line. Though it is suggested Pinkie is an extremely distant relative to Applejack, it’s never confirmed nor denied by the end of the episode, meaning it avoids both severely tampering with the series canon and existing simply as a narrative device to get a Pinkie Pie and Applejack episode.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic was special to me. Still is. For six years it’s been one of my post shameful admissions and yet I see no real reason to be ashamed. I like things gosh darn it. I like sincere things that fill me with joy, I like things that are funny and exciting and genuine and touching, I like things that inspire a little goodness in me. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic gave that to me at a time when I needed it most, and no matter where it goes it’ll always be special to me for that.

Sadly My Little Pony: The Movie is a little late to the party (insert hackneyed Pinkie Pie joke here). The once booming curiosity of its adult fandom has dwindled in numbers comapred to the default market of incredibly young and impressionable girls, with the presence of young boys and adults and equally enthused parents at my local premiere only being a footnote. And yet My Little Pony: The Movie still manages to ooze with happiness and love. It takes Lauren Faust’s original adventure-driven concept and elevates it to a scale that I only ever dreamed was possible, leaving me more enthused about My Little Pony than I’ve been in a long time.

Rick & Morty has been all the buzz lately. And that’s great because it truly deserves it, it’s an intricate and funny and moving series. Its third season has been its most profound yet, giving genuine introspection into the character of Rick Sanchez and how toxic and destructive a human being he truly is. But that’s not what my social media feeds have been interested in. They’ve been talking about the fandom, the would-be real life Ricks who find themselves in almost every online community spewing indulgent nihilistic hatred on everything they touch.

Some friends have even expressed being turned off the series by this, which just really sucks. On one hand I can’t blame them but on the other it’s really just not fair. It’s not fair that people find themselves unwilling to have new media experiences because of hostile fan culture, and it’s not fair on the creators of earnest good works that they need to be accountable for crappy people. So what should you do if something you want to get into has a rubbish fanbase?

Let’s talk about My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Yes, that My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The once revered and controversial show about cartoon horses learning the magic of friendship is still going strong with a seventh season and a feature film on their way later this year, but it seems to have more years behind it than ahead of it at this point. The viewer base and the overall enthusiasm towards the series has seen a significant drop-off, and most notable fandom personalities have moved on to other things (sometimes as in the case of Digibro much bigger things). There’s been a lot of reasons for this, both specific personal reasons and reasons that broadly reflect the current state of the series. Putting aside fandom drama I want to talk about the direction the show has gone in and how that’s sparked disinterest.

It’s crunch time, and I’m gonna try to get out as many episode reviews as I can before Season 5 premieres. I ended up having more to write about than I expected for Rarity Takes Manehattan, so it’s going to be its own post just like Flight to the Finish. Enough chitchat, it’s pone time!

Well, I’m waaaaaay behind schedule on these MLP S4 rewatch write-ups, but I’ll do my best to put out as many in the next couple days before Season 5’s premiere as I can. After Flight to the Finish, Season 4 settles into a groove, and the subsequent several episodes strike a good balance between the earnest and well-made stuff that made MLP popular in the first place and the engaging ambitious ideas that have propelled it forward since Season 2. These two episodes aren’t the best examples of that description, considering they’re reflective of some of the significant shortcomings of MLP trying to be more ambitious, but they still have a bit of what made MLP so great in the first place and a bit of what still makes it so great. Now let’s get down to some more pone!

Flight to the Finish is one of those episodes that reminds you why MLP: FiM is a special show to a lot of people. It’s a wonderful package of genuine charm, humour and great character moments, with all its parts coming together into an incredibly empowering message for children that doesn’t talk down to them. In essence Flight to the Finish is about childhood and self-identity, but it’s the thoughtful construction of those ideas that makes this episode so fantastic.